'India is set to enter a “new era” of homegrown technology in the telecom sector with the state-owned BSNL’s latest “4G stack” which will be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia announced on Friday that the indigenous 4G technology is 5G upgradable and features a Radio Access Network (RAN) developed by Tejas Network, a core network by C-DOT and integrated by Tata Consultancy Services.
Scindia said that over 97,500 mobile 4G towers will be commissioned by the PM at Jharsuguda, Odisha, on September 27.
"This is a new era for the telecom sector, an era where India has entered into the domain of top countries, which produce and manufacture telecom equipment, including Denmark, Sweden, South Korea, China...India is now the fifth country.
This big change in attitude, change in goals was pushed, pioneered and catalysed by the PM," according to Scindia.
Over 92,600 mobile sites installed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) comprise this technology, he said, adding that more than 4,700 mobile 4G towers have already been installed by both Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel and another 14,180 mobile 4G towers have been installed under the 'saturation project' and funded by Digital Bharat Nidhi.
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The 'swadeshi' 4G stack will mark India's entry into a coveted league of nations such as Denmark, Sweden, South Korea, and China that produce and manufacture homegrown telecom equipment. The India-made network is cloud-based and future-ready, Scindia said, and informed that he will be in Guwahati for the launch.
These towers cover 26,700 unconnected villages in remote, border areas, and will be a strategic enabler for digital India, serving over two million new subscribers and powering a range of e-governance services, digital payments, online education, telemedicine and citizen-centric applications.
"Our 4G towers and BTSs are already serving 22 million customers across the length and breadth of our country," he added, and said that after perfecting 4G, “we will be moving towards converting that to 5G as well".
The PM will also unveil India's 100 per cent 4G saturation network through digital Bharat Nidhi, where 29,000-30,000 villages have been connected in a mission-mode project.
"Today is an important day heralding, in 24 hours, the emergence of India on the global telecom footprint, not only as a service provider to 1.2 billion customers...with the cheapest call rates and the cheapest data rate at 11 cents/GB in the world, but also tomorrow will be the day when the world will awake to India having arrived not only as a service provider, but as a manufacturer and an equipment provider of full 4G stack," Scindia said.
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